Turbo-evolution shows cod speeding to extinctionhttp://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1243513488
Fishing is causing cod to evolve faster than anyone had suspected it could, fisheries scientists in Iceland have discovered. This turbo-evolution may be why the world's biggest cod fishery, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, crashed in 1992 and has yet to recover.
The Icelandic cod fishery, almost the only large cod fishery left anywhere in the world, is about to go the same way unless urgent conservation measures are applied, the scientists warn.... Fisheries are known to exert selective pressure on fish. In some cases this has led to the evolution of smaller fish.
This was thought to be a slow process. "Previous workers have concluded that evolutionary changes are only observable on a longer timescale, of decades," Arnason says. "The changes we observe are much more rapid." ... "Man the hunter has become a mechanised techno-beast," the team writes. "Modern fisheries are uncontrolled experiments in evolution."